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Sarah Hesterman is an eighteen-year-old advocate for gender equality and sustainable development. Hesterman has spread awareness for girls’ and women’s issues with the UNDP, UN Women, UNICEF, UNFPA, the Malala Fund, and other global organizations. She has also advocated for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals on Capitol Hill, at the headquarters of the United Nations, and at the White House. Hesterman served as a Teen Advisor for the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up campaign from 2015 to 2016, and she is currently a delegate at the United Nations Youth Assembly.

Dominic Thomas is Chair of the Department of French and Francophone Studies at UCLA. His teaching and research interests include contemporary French politics, globalization, and sub-Saharan African culture and politics. Thomas was the recipient of a German-American Fulbright Commission Award for Germany and Belgium in 2011 and recently a Research Professor at Humboldt University (Berlin). Publications include Black France: Colonialism, Immigration, and Transnationalism (2007) and Africa and France: Postcolonial Cultures, Migration, and Racism (2013).

Reza Samar is an associate professor of (Socio)linguistics and Applied Linguistics. He holds a Ph.D. from University of Ottawa, Canada in Applied-Sociolinguistics and specializes in Sociolinguistics (Variation Theory, Bilingualism, and intercultural communication) and its application to Second/Foreign Language Acquisition. He teaches Sociolinguistics, Second Language acquisitions and Discourse Analysis at MA and PhD levels and is the author of numerous books like “Aspects of Second Language Speech: a variationist perspective” published in 2010 and articles appearing as book chapters or in journals such as International Journal of Bilingualism. Two inter-related areas of interest he is recently working on are intercultural communication (between first and second languages/cultures) and identity (socio-cultural/national/professional) of the people involved in Foreign/Second language learning contexts.
He is now on sabbatical as a visiting scholar at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, University of Montana.

Robert Dannhauser is head of capital markets policy for CFA Institute. He oversees development and promotion of positions, policies, and standards to assure integrity of global capital markets. On this Council in the Radio episode, he talks about China’s shadow banking industry and the fate of global markets.

Dr. Furlong received his MD from University of California, San Francisco followed by residency in ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute/UCLA. He completed an advanced fellowship in glaucoma, cataract and intraocular lens surgery at the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah. Dr. Furlong travels 2-3 times per year with Moran Eye Center teams to screen patients, perform surgery and teach local physicians in sight-restoring procedures. Locations include Ghana, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania and Guatemala.

Dr. Abdelilah Bouasria received his PhD in political science from American University in Washington DC. He was previously an adjunct lecturer of Middle Eastern politics at George Mason University, VA. He is the author of Master and Disciple (2007), Kingdom of Drought (2006) and is the co-editor of Lost in Translation: Forgotten Paradigms in Islam. Dr. Bouasria now works as a professor of Arabic at the Defense Critical Language and Culture Program at the University of Montana.

Priya Guha became British Consul General in San Francisco in August 2011. She has responsibility for the Consulate General’s delivery of the UK government’s foreign policy and service delivery objectives in the six-state area consisting of Northern California, Washington State, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho and Montana. Priya is particularly interested in promoting closer political, economic, trade and people-to-people ties with the northwestern United States. She has previously served in the British High Commission in New Delhi, and the British Embassy in Madrid.

Council President Emeritus Bob Seidenschwarz is joined by Arnie Sherman, former director of the Montana World Trade Center and current managing director of the Northern Rockies Regional Center, an EB-5 visa program in Montana. They will discuss the Asia Montana Energy Summit and reconciling energy with environmental issues.